Understanding Broadband Phone Service

Broadband phone service, also known as Internet telephony and VoIP, is a relatively new technology. To put it very simply, through a Broadband phone service, you can make telephone calls using an internet connection. Though the technology is new, the expenses for using this service are not expensive. Logically, since internet connections these days are cheap, making telephone calls using an internet connection should also be cheap, as the service provider is incurring less cost providing you this service.

To understand how broadband telephone system works or, how it can be provided so cheap, imagine that you are in Florida and wish to make a call to San Francisco. If you were using a normal phone, you call would first go to your local Florida phone service provider. There ought to be some charges incurred by this company, to forward your call. Next, when your call reaches San Francisco, before it reaches the recipient, the local phone company in San Francisco would also incur some amount of organizational expenses to provide you and the recipient this service. As you can see the charges have already multiplied twice. So your local telephone provider at Florida has incurred charges twice, which he must charge back to you, keeping some amount of profit to run his business.

Now imagine the same situation, with you having a broadband phone. When you wish to make that same call from Florida, using a broadband phone which is connected to your DSL or ISDN connection, the call never goes through your Florida phone service provider. The call simply passes through the internet connection and reaches the recipient in San Francisco. Your local phone service provider simply pays the charges to the San Francisco service providing company, thus cutting the cost to nearly half!

Broadband phone connection will work with any type of internet connection, so long as it provides 128K bandwidth. Remember that broadband phones do not work with dial-up or satellite dish internet connections. The quality of broadband connections is very good. In fact, the connection can be used simultaneously for using internet as well as making calls. For instance, when you are searching or surfing the net, you could easily use it for making calls as well, and the sound quality is as good as a landline connection!

You can use any existing phone, including a cordless one, to use it as a broadband phone. All you need is a converter box, to which you should plug in your existing phone. And there you are, your broadband phone is ready to use.